Perhaps we all need a reminder, in the midst of haggling and dealing, that we are living not in an ordinary land
IT is 6 p.m, the Jerusalem light rail is packed, and I am crushed among the standees. On my left is a man reading a chareidi and very right-wing tabloid with lurid red and yellow headlines. Some might label it sensationalist. On my right is a man reading a secular and very left-wing tabloid, with lurid red and yellow headlines. Some might label it sensationalist. (Thus, my left is Right, and my right is Left: this is Israel….)
I am pressed so close to them that I can read their newspapers. The leftist tabloid offers a screaming headline: “New Government Is Fascist.” The rightist tabloid will not be outdone, and offers its own screaming headline: “Mixed Multitude Out. Decent Government In.”
The train rounds a curve and we are thrown against one another, but the anger is undiminished. A leftist columnist, headlining “the end of democracy,” accuses chareidim of destroying the rule of law by reforming the High Court. The Rightist columnist heralds the long overdue weakening of the “arrogant, anti-Torah High Court.” On my left, a full page notice: “Power-Hungry Rabbis Want Another Medieval Iran!” On my right, a front page ad: “Imitating the West’s Immorality Will Destroy Israel!”
The conversation — shouting match, really — between the tabloids is both amusing and disturbing, but my neck aches from swiveling from right to left. Mercifully, the train stops at the Central Station, disgorging many riders. Gone also are my new friends, the tabloids. My inter-ideological caper has ended.
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